[Genuine Realist]

It probably would have meant consolidating international travelers into a handful of locations (maybe NY, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Chicago, and LA) and closing to international flights outside of the dedicated ports of entry.  That is not a trivial task, and would have required massively reducing the number of flights and travelers to cope (of course, the volume of travelers would have reduced dramatically anyways had people known they would have to quarantine for 14 days).

BC

The regulatory machinery of our nation actually is wonderfully efficient, in terms of ordinary organizational efficiency. It's only when you compare it to some mythical Utopia that it looks bad. Comparisons to seeking a perpetual motion machine are apt. Entropy is a fact in organizations as well as physics.

It was impossible to come up with a satisfactory regulatory scheme in a period no longer than six weeks and, by some reckonings, as short as ten days.

That said, maybe we could be doing a little better after nine months. Going back to the same draconian lock down does not speak well for the flexibility of our regulators. I'm thinking particularly of school closings, in which we are paying a much bigger price than we need to.

[Genuine Realist]

It probably would have meant consolidating international travelers into a handful of locations (maybe NY, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Chicago, and LA) and closing to international flights outside of the dedicated ports of entry.  That is not a trivial task, and would have required massively reducing the number of flights and travelers to cope (of course, the volume of travelers would have reduced dramatically anyways had people known they would have to quarantine for 14 days).

BC

The regulatory machinery of our nation actually is wonderfully efficient, in terms of ordinary organizational efficiency. It's only when you compare it to some mythical Utopia that it looks bad. Comparisons to seeking a perpetual motion machine are apt. Entropy is a fact in organizations as well as physics.

It was impossible to come up with a satisfactory regulatory scheme in a period no longer than six weeks and, by some reckonings, as short as ten days.

That said, maybe we could be doing a little better after nine months. Going back to the same draconian lock down does not speak well for the flexibility of our regulators. I'm thinking particularly of school closings, in which we are paying a much bigger price than we need to.